Tag: directory

While in old versions of Syncplify.me Server! (v1-v3) impersonation capabilities were limited to either no impersonation at all or impersonating the logged-in Windows/AD user, the new Syncplify.me Server! v4 comes with a broader range of possibilities:

None: this is the default choice and it means that the underlying virtual file system (VFS) will be accesses with the same privileges as the Syncplify.me Server! system service (usually the SYSTEM user profile).

By Handle: this is available only when the user profile is a Windows or Active Directory user and it’s equivalent to the type of impersonation found in previous versions of Syncplify.me Server!, basically the user profiles that logged in is also used for impersonation.

By Windows or AD User: this allows you to log in as a normal, Windows or AD user, but then use a different Windows or AD user to access the underlying virtual file system (VFS). Yes, you can log in as normal user “johndoe” and then access your home directory as AD user “j.doe@mycompany.corp”.

By Network Share User: if your NAS has its own user database (which is not integrated with your Windows or AD user database) then you can use this type of impersonation to access paths on your NAS via UNC and authenticate on the NAS itself (ex: \\192.167.172.100\MyProtectedSharedFoloder).

On top of that, each virtual folder has its own impersonation settings, so you can access your home directory as SYSTEM, your “/private_docs” virtual folder as “j.doe@mycompany.corp”, and your “/CorpSharedDocs” folder on your NAS as “CorpNASUser”; all within a single Syncplify.me Server! user profile.

Another highly requested feature that we introduced in Syncplify.me Server! v4 is parametric home directories.

Some of our customers, in fact, need to isolate every user in their own directory under a general “container”, the directory name being the same as the user’s username. They also requested that if a particular user’s home dir does not exist, it is automatically created when the user logs in.

One of the biggest additions to the upcoming version 4.0 of Syncplify.me Server! is the VFS (Virtual File System) support. But what is it exactly? And what advantages does it bring to our users?

Let’s start by setting the bar with v3. Our version 3.x, in fact – as nearly every competitor – allows you to place users’ “homes” (root directories) on a disk. It can be a local or a network disk, but it’s basically disk-based. The following picture explains the concept in a visual way: Continue reading

This new maintenance release introduces a measure to deal with non-standard client softwares that send paths with multiple slashes (ex: ////documents//mydoc.xls). Even though this is a client-originated protocol violation, we needed to make sure to manage it correctly on the server-side in order for the client to be able to reach the intended file. Now all paths are correctly normalized.

We had customers reporting that Syncplify.me Server! v3 session threads may stall (and use up an entire CPU core) during directory listing if a single folder to be listed contains a large number of files, say north of 20,000.

First we tested our v3 to confirm the issue, then we tested many other FTP/SFTP servers, and found out that none of the tested competitors passed the test either. Some of them crashed around 10,000 files, the best ones crashed around 65,000.

Then we tested our own new Virtual File System that comes with Syncplify.me Server! v4… and, well, we think that a picture is worth a thousand words: Continue reading

One of the most anticipated features that Syncplify.me Server! v4 will deliver is the ability to mount virtual directories – even nested ones – as encrypted virtual file systems.

The Encrypted VFS transparently encrypts and decrypts data on-the-fly during uploads and/or downloads, making sure that the files at-rest on the server side are always encrypted. This way you can run your server externally, and still always be sure that who operates the server for you doesn’t have access to your files/backups. This is also a requirement in some cases when your company has to comply to the PCI/DSS or HIPAA regulations. Continue reading

FTP Script! v3.1.0.50, released earlier today, comes with a bunch of new features and functions to simplify some tasks related to the management of local files. In fact, it’s not just about transferring files to/from FTP servers… what you do with those files after/before you upload/download them to your local disk also matters!

In earlier versions of FTP Script! the FileCopy function, for example, was very limited. It could copy only one file at a time, and it had no support for wildcard file masks. In v3.1 we greatly improved it, and you can now use it this way:

Delphi/Pascal

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begin

ifFileCopy('C:\Data\*.xml','C:\Destination\', true) then

Log('Files successfully copied')

else

Log('Files were NOTcorrectly copied');

end.

The third parameter (set to true in the example here above) determines whether the function should overwrite the destination file(s) if it/they already exist.

One of the biggest changes that version 4 will bring to Syncplify.me Server!’s user base is the all-new Virtual File System. This is such an epic change that it’s actually one of the reasons why the release of v4 is taking longer than expected… but it will be worth the wait.

Check out the following comparison table to appreciate the main advantages of the new VFS over the previous approach (that was based on “virtual directories”):

Virtual Directory Approach (v1, v2, v3)

Virtual File System (v4)

Virtual directories can only be placed directly under the user's home directory

In a VFS, virtual folders can be placed anywhere, even nested within each other

All virtual directories are accessed "as" the user who logged in (single impersonation)

In a VFS, each virtual folder can accessed "as" a different user profile (multiple impersonation)

Virtual directories mapped to UNC paths could not be accessed by "normal" user profiles, only by Windows or AD user profiles

Each virtual folder has its own impersonation criteria, so even "normal" user profiles can access virtual folders mapped to remote UNC paths

We have just released a maintenance version of Syncplify.me Server! This new version fixes a tiny glitch that prevented the software from saving the log files in the correct folder under certain operating system locale configurations.

If your log files are saved in the right place, you don’t need this update.